"Demonization of Iran": how the West accuses Tehran of involvement in the crash of the Ukrainian Boeing 737

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine believes that the available information is not enough to draw conclusions on the reasons for the crash of the Boeing-737 "Ukraine International Airlines" (UIA) near Tehran. This was stated by the head of the department Vadim Priestayko.

“If we prove that this plane was shot down, of course, we will not only bring to justice all those responsible, but also to compensation. But today it’s too early to talk about it, ”he said. “To date, we have no good reason to say that there are any substances on the wreckage of the aircraft that indicate a terrorist attack.”

A similar statement was made by the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) Ivan Bakanov.

“Indeed, the version of the hit of the“ Tor ”anti-aircraft missile complex (SAM) missile attracts the greatest public attention today. However, it is enough to open the instruction manual for the air defense system to raise a number of questions that require additional answers. In particular, we are talking about the flight range of the rocket, the nuances of managing the complex and so on. All issues are being worked out now, ”the SBU press service quoted him as saying.

Recall that on the morning of January 8, shortly after departure from the Imam Khomeini International Airport, the UIA crashed. There were 167 passengers and nine crew members aboard PS752.

The Iranian Civil Aviation Commission issued a preliminary report stating that the plane caught fire before colliding with the ground - eyewitness accounts confirm it - and crashed when it tried to return to Tehran's airport.

An Iranian news agency reported that Tehran will unveil the cause of the crash on Saturday January 11th.

At first, the Western media also circulated a version with a preliminary conclusion that the plane crashed due to a technical malfunction.

• © The New York Times

“There are a lot of theories around the crash of a Ukrainian plane in Iran, but little clarity,” the newspaper The New York Times published with such a headline.

However, a couple of days after the disaster, leading American and British publications, television channels and news agencies began to accuse Iran of involvement in the crash of the liner.

Social Media Investigations

On the evening of January 8, Elliot Higgins, the founder of the Bellingcat portal, announced his intention to check the version that the Boeing 737 of Ukraine International Airlines was allegedly shot down by a missile from the Tor anti-aircraft missile system (SA-15 in NATO classification).

Higgins wrote about this after they began to distribute a photo on social networks, allegedly taken at the scene of the disaster. It was alleged that the picture shows the warhead of a rocket fired from the Tor complex.

Next we'll take a look at the last known location of the aircraft and it's range from Iranian military bases, and see if the Tor system would have been in range to verify the Tor missile scenario is viable. This is independent of verifying if the image is genuine.

“We will look at the last known location of the aircraft [in airspace] and the distance to it from the Iranian military bases and see if it was within the range of the Tor systems. It does not depend on image authentication, ”Higgins wrote.

It is worth noting that soon the photo and the Twitter account that distributed it were deleted.

Recall that the Bellingcat portal gained fame after its "investigation" of the crash of the MH-17 aircraft in the Donbass, which was also carried out on the basis of various unofficial materials from social networks.

Despite circumstantial evidence and a dubious methodology, an assertion was submitted as the final conclusion in the investigation that Russia was allegedly involved in the crash of the plane.

Higgins' lack of any official investigation status or military-technical experience did not prevent the Western media from repeatedly referring to its results in its materials, in which Russia was described as the unconditional culprit of the MH-17 catastrophe.

Indictment strategy

While various photos and videos were being circulated on social networks, allegedly proving that the Ukrainian Boeing 737 was hit by a rocket, Western media sharply rejected the technical malfunction of the aircraft as a possible cause of the disaster in favor of the version of Iran’s involvement in this incident.

So, the ABC channel, the American news agency Associated Press and the newspaper The New York Times, citing anonymous sources in the US government, said that there was a "high probability" that the plane was shot down by the Iranian side.

• © ABC

“An American official:“ with a high degree of probability ”a Ukrainian plane shot down Iran,” ABC said.

The New York Times, which initially wrote about the technical malfunction of the aircraft and the large number of versions, soon also released an article in which it blamed Iran, relying on statements from Western officials.

• © The New York Times

“Citing the first evidence, officials say the Ukrainian plane was accidentally shot down by an Iranian missile,” the newspaper wrote.

• © CNN

CNN, in turn, emphasized that the plane was shot down by "two Russian-made missiles."

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, soon joined in with the accusations, who said during a press briefing on C-Span that he “has his own suspicions” about this.

“I have my suspicions; others also have such suspicions. This is a tragedy. Someone could be wrong on the other hand, ”Trump said.

According to him, the aircraft flew in a "rather difficult region." At the same time, according to the US president, "some say" that the cause of the crash was the "technical malfunction" of the liner.

“I personally do not think that this is even (necessary. - RT ) considered,” he said.

Shortly after Trump's statement, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau officially accused Iran of involvement in the disaster.

“We have data from many sources, including allied and our own, and this information indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian ground-to-air missile,” Trudeau said.

The head of the Iranian Civil Aviation Organization, Ali Abedzadeh, has denied any suggestion that the plane was shot down, and said that it was “scientifically impossible.” He emphasized that Iranian missiles are not capable of rising to such a height.

"Confirmation of the legitimacy of the strike"

The circumstances of the tragic incident and the indictment campaign launched by a number of Western media indicate that all this is an information attack against Iran, experts say.

“The news agencies that were the first to publish such materials cite sources in the US presidential administration, the Pentagon, and the intelligence community. There is no evidence of Iran’s involvement in this catastrophe, and will not be, ”political analyst Alexander Asafov emphasized in an interview with RT.

In his opinion, this campaign is the response to missile attacks on American bases that the United States "can afford in the election year."

“This is only the first step, in the near future there will be dozens of them. It is not known how Iran will respond to this. Tehran has invited experts from Boeing to join the investigation of the real reasons. This is a good move, but against the background of the creation of the media myth, he has no prospects. It is worth waiting for further informational, political, diplomatic and economic escalation. Perhaps there will be military operations that will be undertaken by a number of groups with which the USA has a close relationship, ”the expert suggested.

According to analysts, the American media will continue to disseminate similar versions of the crash of the Boeing 737, to some extent to distract the world community from how the conflict between Iran and the United States developed.

“Now there is a high activity of news agencies, since the US is profitable for the Iranians to be to blame for the disaster. In this way, they will demonstrate that Trump did the right thing, that he eliminated the Iranian military commander Kassem Suleimani, ”the head of the Department of Political Science and Sociology of the Russian University of Economics named in his conversation with RT G.V. Plekhanova Andrey Koshkin.

A similar point of view is shared by Alexander Asafov. He believes that all this policy of Western intelligence and the media, acting at the same time and on the instructions of Washington, is aimed at legitimizing US actions to eliminate the Iranian military leader.

"Trump explained the liquidation of Suleimani by responding to Iran’s hostile actions, including subsequent attacks on military bases ... Demonizing Iran, Suleimani and all possible Iran’s allies is the main task of this campaign," the political scientist concluded.